Attention can be defined as focused mental engagement on or involvement with a particular item of information. Human attention is an increasingly scarce commodity, to the point that there are new economic models emerging, such as the “attention economy” which applies economic theory to the acquisition and retention of attention.
With the dramatic increase of portable computing and communication systems such as laptops, tablets and smartphones, people find that their attention is increasingly divided. Interruptions such as email, texting and push notifications further intrude on people's attention. A recent study by Microsoft (Attention Spans, Consumer Insights, Microsoft Canada, Spring, 2015) showed that the average consumer attention span was only 12 seconds in 2000, and had further declined to 8 seconds by 2013.
One of the ubiquitous devices that is currently competing for the attention of consumers is shared digital displays, which are often located in public places. Whether we are in the elevator, the airport, a sports stadium, or simply walking down the street one can observe these shared digital displays everywhere. They all contain information that is seeking to capture our attention—whether it is an electronic billboard, a schedule of activities in a hotel, or sports highlights and statistics projected on a giant display in a stadium before a sporting event.
When the information on a shared digital display truly captures a viewer's attention, the benefits to comprehension and retention are substantial. Most information-processing models of memory have three major components: a sensory register, a working (or short-term) memory, and a long-term memory. When an item of information suddenly becomes the sole focus of the viewer, comprehension and retention of the information increases as it moves from sensory memory into short term memory, and then from short term into long term memory. The longer the viewer focuses on the content, the higher the rate of comprehension and retention. (See Strategies to Enhance Memory Based on Brain Research Banikowski, Alison K., “Focus on Exceptional Children,” 0015511X, October 99, Vol. 32, Issue 2.)
Research has also shown that certain types of creative activities enhance memory and retention of information. Creating art, viewing art, and discriminating among visually presented shapes also has been shown to enhance memory (Rosier, James Tyler, Art and Memory: An Examination of the Learning Benefits of Visual-Art Exposure. Thesis, Georgia Southern University, 2010)
Traditional approaches to wrestling with measuring engagement have provided a very limited ability to track and analyze viewer engagement with information which is shown on shared digital displays. The most traditional metric is “CPI”, a standard marketing metric that is defined as cost per impression. The simplest method for measuring CPI on a shared digital display is simply to count the number of people walking past the display. In the past this was done manually, More recently, cameras have been installed that use automated methods to count traffic. This obviously has very limited utility, as measuring traffic past the display does not effectively measure engagement—how involved the viewer is with what is displayed.
Other approaches have placed a variety of sensors on or near shared displays to identify viewers and do things like raise or lower the display as well as increase font size depending on the distance of the viewer from the display.
Additional approaches have collected data by fitting the viewers with physiological monitors and attempting to analyze engagement by monitoring heartrate and other physiological factors, or analyzing their facial expressions for laughing or anger, and the like.